Neil and Carol Anderson have served the Folopas for over 35 years as missionaries and Bible translators. These indiginous people are nestled in a remote cluster of villages in the Southern Higlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Their only access to the outside world is by airplane or treking for days through the dense jungle to the nearest city which is several miles away.

Neil and Carol believe that God sent them to bring the Good News to the Folopa speaking people. As members of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and with the help of friends and supporters they have lived and worked with the Folopas to translate the Bible into their language. The Folopa's had no written language so Neil and Carol had to create an alphabet and then teach them how to read and write in their own language. They then worked with the people to translate the Bible into Folopa.

Besides translating the Bible, Neil and Carol have helped meet the needs of the people. Some of the ways in which they helped is by doing medical work, putting in a water line through the village, and supplying much needed things like axes, shovels and clothing. For many years they worked with the Folopas and developed friendship and trust with the people.

On January 19 2007, their labor of love was realized by many. The Folopas and friends of the Andersons gathered to celebrate the dedication of the New Testament into the Folopa language. Shorlty thereafter Neil and Carol moved back to the United States (their home country). Neil still takes trips back to Papua New Guinea to work on translating the Old Testament.

The Andersons have four children (Heather, Dan, Bruce and Wendy), who were raised with the Folopas. They have all grown up now and live in the U.S. and Spain.

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Andersons

Neil and Carol Anderson started their journey in Spokane Washington, in the U.S. They met at a church youth group and started dating. They both shared an interest in missions. One summer when Carol was working on staff at a summer youth camp, Neil proposed to Carol right in front of the jounior high girls that Carol was mentoring. Carol blushed and excepted his proposal, and the girls giggled with glee. They got married at Fourth Memorial (the church they were attending) in December of 1965. Shortly thereafter, Carol became pregnant with their daughter Heather. Carol's pregnancy was not an easy one, but Heather was born and the young couple were parents for the first time.

After finishing his degree at Eastern Washington University, Neil decided to attend Seminary in Oregon. But not long into Seminary he decided to take a differnt direction, and apply directly to a mission organization called Wycliffe. At this time Carol was pregnant again, this time with their son Daniel. They were invited to attend a summer course in linguistics. Daniel was born only two weeks before the course was to begin. They packed up their belongings and moved to Seattle to attend the course. Shortly after the the summer course, they traveled to Mexico to attend Jungle Camp training.

The training in Mexico was challenging but rewarding, and returning back to the States took even more faith. Their vehicle broke down and they barely made it to the airport, but they made it back to Spokane in one piece. The following summer, Neil and Carol attended another linguistics course. Nearing the end of the course they had to decide on which country to go and be missionaries to. They felt perhaps God was leading them to go to Papua New Guinea, so they informed their home church of the decision and began to raise support. Many from their church supported them and sent them off to serve as Bible Translators in New Guinea.

Ariving in New Guinea, they spent their first few nights in Lae (small city on the eastern coast). Relaxing under the Palm trees at the Lae guest house, Carol over heard two missionary women sharing their struggles. She could hardly believe her ears, when she heard them talk about how difficult it was relating to the people and the oppresiveness of evil they felt. "this can't be how it really is", she thought to her self.

They flew by small airplane a couple days later to the S.I.L. Missionary Center (Ukarumpa). After settling in at the Mission Base, they began scouting for a village to alocate to. They took a helicopter flight out into a remote part of New Guinea, to the Folopa speaking people. They landed in some of the villages to see if anyone could speak Pidgin (a common layman's language in Papua New Guinea). As they were visting one village called Fukutau, one man stepped forward and said in a rough accent, "you come back!". They later reflected on this and felt God leading them to this place.

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